


Honey Nut Cheerios

by empty_battlefield



Series: A Slice of Sadstuck [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Blindness, Brotherly Angst, Brotherly Love, Cereal, Disabled Character, Honey Nut Cheerios, Hopeful Ending, Not Sadstuck, Other, Sadstuck, Sibling Rivalry, Skateboarding, full range swearing, mental disability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:02:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9706298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empty_battlefield/pseuds/empty_battlefield
Summary: You are lying on the floor, and every part of you is in pain. Your walking cane fell out of your hand, and you don't know where it is in this sea of Legos that you are lying in.You are Sollux Captor.You feel around near your feet for the mysterious object that you tripped over, and eventually lay your hand on your brother's four wheeled device.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Companion stories: occurs after both _Of Cats and Computers_ and _Birthday Party,_ although can be read independently.

You are lying on the floor, and every part of you is in pain. And worst of all, your walking cane fell out of your hand, and you don't know where it is in this sea of Legos that you are lying in. Some of these sick mini human torture devices are still painfully stuck in your gray skin. You run your bifurcated tongue along your gums, and your sense of taste is overwhelmed with your own mustard blood. Of course, you cannot actually taste that it is mustard colored, for you are not currently being Terezi Pyrope. You just know what color your own blood is because you are you. 

You are Sollux Captor. 

You feel around near your feet for the mysterious object that you tripped over, and eventually lay your hand on a four wheeled device. 

Mituna's four wheeled device.

You swear beneath your breath and yell for your older brother. "Mituna!! Get your ass over here!"

You hear the distant padding of Mituna's bumbling, heavy footsteps as they thud closer and closer in your ears.

Mituna is begrudgingly cursing and lisping at you under his breath. Still seated on the floor, you spin around towards the sound of his feet. 

"What?" he spits at you.

"What did I tell you about leaving your shit all over the floor, Mituna?"

"Not to..."

"You made me trip, asshole. Real fucking considerate," you retort. 

"I'm thorry..."

"You're not," you retort. "You say it a million times but you're not sorry. You pull this same crap all the time. Shit, one of these things is stuck in my ass." You knew the damn Legos were a horrible gift when John Egbert got them for Mituna for twelfth perigee's eve, but you didn't say anything about it back then.

"I'm thorry."

You hear Mituna's knees crack as he curls down from his massive height to reach your place on the floor.

Your hands fly to the expanse of the floor, and you fling Legos out of your way as you swat with frustration for Mituna's four wheeled device. Your hand finally lands on it, and it rolls slightly under the weight of your palm. You snatch up the board and hug it to your chest.

"Mituna, you can't have this until you learn not to leave it anywhere you damn please," you say. You get exactly the reaction you were going for.

"No!!" your brother whines. He clambers toward you on the hardwood floor, reaching for your chest. You scramble away from him, all while keeping your arms glued to the board. You yelp and feel your thinkpan reverberate—a hollow thunking sound slams your head against the back wall.

Quickly and aggressively—Mituna takes the opportunity to tear the device from your arms. He is much stronger than you.

"Guys— _what_ the hell is going on here?"

You are startled by the female voice that rings in your ears. Mituna begins audibly wailing. You hear hollow heeled shoes plunking against the floor as they approach the sobbing Mituna.

"Shh, MT, use your words. What happened?"

You interject, "Mituna left his Legos and his four wheeled device—"

"I asked him first, Sollux," Latula cuts you off in a grinding voice. Mituna sobs some more, uttering a few incoherent syllables to his matesprit. "He tried to take it from you?" she asked softly. You hear Mituna bawl in affirmation. 

Mituna shifts onto his knees. He approaches you. You feel his large arm brush up against your slender one as he reaches past you. Your flustered hands flail through the air until you manage to slap him on the arm. 

"Don't you try to give me a hug! It's not going to work," you spit, trying desperately to push him away now that he is close enough to you for you to feel his body heat.

"Sollux, cool it—he _just_ wants to hand you your cane."

Mituna is whimpering quietly as he gently deposits the slender stick into your lap. You grasp the familiar handle tightly. Your "thank you" stays behind your gritted, missing teeth.

You hear Latula talking with her matesprit. "I'm not leaving you, MT. Your kid brother and I are gonna have a chit chat in the other room, m'kay?" She approaches you. 

"I'll lead you to the culinary block if you'll stand up," she says to you.

"I wouldn't _need_ someone to lead me through my own hive if the place weren't booby-trapped," you grunt, reluctantly getting up from your place on the floor until her voice is below yours. 

"He didn't mean to hurt you," she says, taking you by the arm.

"Yeah. He never _means_ to."

The two of you enter the culinary block and you settle into a chair. Latula remains standing, and you can hear her heels clicking against the tile floor as she paces around like a prosecutor. You don't say anything. You have the right to remain silent. 

"You didn't have to yell at him, you know," she says in a low voice. 

"Yeah? Well you don't have to live with him," you retort, groping the table behind you for a spot to lean your cane against. "I'm sick of his shit. You have no conception of what it's like, even before I went blind, what it was like. Terezi understands. She knows what it's like. You have no idea. Not having a sense of smell is not even a real disability anyway—"

"This isn't about me, Sollux," Latula counters. "Mituna's not the one who took your sight from you. And my kid sister will be the first to tell you that." She sighs. "Look, Sollux. I may not know about it first hand, but TZ got freaked when the lights went out so quick—just like you. But that's no reason to go flipping your shit on your brother. It's not his fault that you're blind."

"Yeah—but it _is_ his fault that he makes my life a living hell!" you spit fiercely. "He could clean up his stupid kid toys once in a while, just like he could turn down the TV when I'm trying to study—he doesn't have to spit out the food that I make on nights when Psii's not home just because he thinks it tastes funny. But he does. Because he doesn't care. I can't _possibly_ expect him to be _considerate_ once in a while. Everyone thinks he's _incapable_ just because he's incoherent. But all I'm saying is he could if he just tried."

Latula says nothing for a while. It kind of scares you, because the absence of her voice leaves you completely blind. "You don't think he tries?" she asked.

"No. I know he doesn't," you reply hollowly. "I'm not saying he goes out of his way to make our lives hard—but he doesn't really make an effort to make it easier, either."

You hear Latula sigh profoundly. "You're not looking enough into him. —And I'm sorry if that phrasing triggers you."

"It's OK."

"Fine. My point is that he does try. I'll be the first to admit that he's wicked forgetful—but he's always trying. You just don't realize it," she says rancidly. "What about that human food you like, that—what's it called?—Honey Nut Cheerio?"

"Yeah..." you trail off curiously. ”What about em?"

"Well...do you ever wonder why they're always on the third shelf in the pantry to the left hand side?"

"How do you know what's in our pantry?" you ask in alarm. "I know you're over a lot, but seriously, you're nosier than Rose—shit, sorry. Don't tell Kankri I said that."

"That's not the point. Mituna knows you love them as much as he does, and he wants you to be able to have them accessible."

You pause before speaking. "He—told you all of that?" 

"Well, no," Latula says uneasily. "I wish. He threw a fit when I had them as a snack and put the box back in the wrong place. The thing is, Sollux, we both know he's no Aranea Serket when it comes to words. And you can't see his facial expressions, which hold a lot of his clues. He's got his own whole language going on."

You sigh. "He's just so hard to understand if he doesn't say what he means," you say lowly. 

She replies, "I know. It was hard for me to understand him at first too. And it'll probably be even harder for you. You're just going to have to figure out a new way to see. But I'm not _saying_ that it's easy. I'm _saying_ that it's worth it. Mituna loves you more than anyone else, and you two deserve to be cool with each other, ya know?"

You nod, rubbing your eyes absently. "I should say I'm sorry, right?" Latula chuckles softly under her breath, and you know you have her opinion. You grab your cane and shuffle out of the culinary block, and Latula's footsteps clip-clop off towards another room in the hive.

"Hey Mituna?" you call to your brother, tapping the tip of your cane on the tiles as you reenter the family block. "You in here?"

"Yeh," you hear him say almost immediately. You are startled by his voice because he is closer to you than expected. You let him lead you over to the couch. Normally this would bug you to no end, but you are making a point in being OK with it for now.

"I, uh—," you begin, "I'm really sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn't have done that. You didn't deserve it and—that wasn't very cool of me."

"That's OK!!" Mituna exclaims happily. You feel a pang of guilt because he is so quick to forgive. You feel his arms snake around your torso and yank you in for a tight hug. Mituna really doesn't know his own strength. Your shoulder is pinned up awkwardly against his chest and he's squeezing you so tight you can barely breathe—but you gratefully hug him back with your free arm.

"Hey, it's almost three o clock, you hungry for a snack?" you ask when you two break apart.

"Yeah!!"

"What d'ya want?"

"Cheerioth!"

You snicker under your breath. "Why did I even ask," you mutter to yourself. You hear him getting up and feel his legs brushing past you as he clambers toward the pantry. "No—wait," you say, "I'll get the box. You just sit your pretty little ass down while I serve you, 'kay?"

Mituna complies, muttering something about "Butler island," as he pulls a chair out with a squeak. 

"You bet you're on Butler Island—I'm your younger brother, anyhow. That means you're allowed to boss me around once in a while." you say as you cradle two bowls under your right arm and rest your hand on the Honey Nut Cheerios with your left. 

Your older brother laughs slightly as he waits patiently for you to carefully pour out the two bowls. You offer the first to him. 

"Thanksth Thol!" he says to you gratuitously. You hear him chewing with his mouth open, and you smile and don't even say nothing about it.

"Eh, don't mention it," you reply, putting a spoonful into your own mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave comments about what you think! -EB


End file.
